Symmetries and geometries

To our modern way of thinking there seems to be little or no neat geometry to the alignments in West Penwith. But there are noticeable patterns and more are likely to emerge.

Symmetries

Some backbone alignments emanating from major nodes such as St Michael’s Mount, Lanyon Quoit, Trencrom Hill, Botrea Barrows and Gurnards Head suggest an angular symmetry suggesting a certain order to the angles between them. Lanyon Quoit provides an example, on the right.

The angles are not actually uniform or simple (such as 45° or 60°), but they do have a certain coherence to them. This adds to the questions that are raised by the discovery of the backbone alignments. However, from most other alignment nodes the spread of radials looks more haphazard.

Perhaps a geomancer with an eye for geometry might pick up this question and run with it - it needs more research. If his interests you, the azimuths of all alignments are included in the alignments list on this site, from which angles can be calculated.